How to fix health by looking upstream: 5 must-reads

Is poverty literally in your blood? How your blood can reveal your future health, The GuardianThe issue: British researchers are using blood tests to look at differences in people’s levels of socioeconomic status and track how that shows up in markers of stress and inflammation. They have found that differences between income groups begin to widen in the 30s, peak in the 50s, and converge again late in life, suggesting that in midlife, people with lower socioeconomic status have significantly more stressful lives and higher levels of chronic inflammation. The takeaway: People in lower socioeconomic groups have a demonstrably longer exposure to chronic inflammation than do people in higher socioeconomic groups, which suggests stress and inflammation may play a central role in how poverty leads to poorer health.

The connection between college and healthA dying town, The Chronicle of Higher EducationThe issue: Areas of America like the “bootheel” of Missouri struggle with a complex of problems, including underemployment and poor health, which are increasingly linked to the lack of higher education. The article does a deep dive into the connection between education and health, painting a nuanced picture of the tangled factors that drag down the health and wealth of many parts of rural America. The takeaway: In American society, obtaining a four-year college degree is increasingly a health marker: Those who get one are healthier, those who don’t tend to live shorter, sicker lives.

Teaching more kids to overcome bad childhoodsHow people learn to become resilient, The New YorkerThe issue: Psychologists know that while neglect and abuse damage many children, some manage to triumph over their circumstances. Increasingly, they are convinced that that kind of resilience can be taught: “Frame adversity as a challenge,” the author writes, “and you become more flexible and able to deal with it, move on, learn from it and grow. Focus on it, frame it as a threat, and a potentially traumatic event becomes an enduring problem; you become more inflexible, and more likely to be negatively affected.”The takeaway: Public health experts are developing psychological techniques that can teach more kids to thrive, despite growing up in poor or troubled households and neighborhoods.

What’s good for the economy may not be good for your healthHow a healthy economy can shorten life spans, The New York Times/The UpshotThe issue: It may seem counterintuitive, but when the economy is growing and unemployment is dropping, death rates go up.Some of the linkage is because employed people have more stress, drive more, and sleep less, researchers have found. But the environment also plays a role: In industrialized countries, as much as two-thirds of the difference comes from increased air pollution as economic output increases, pollution that aggravates conditions like heart disease and respiratory illnesses.The takeaway: Over the long term, economic growth may improve health, but at least in the short run, economic expansions can cut short the lives of some people.

The economic argument for fixing the pipes10 policies to prevent and respond to childhood lead exposure, Health Impact ProjectThe issue: The lead contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, might seem like a local problem, but the implications for the rest of the country are actually enormous. The Health Impact Project (funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) conducted a national cost-benefit analysis that found that failing to eliminate lead from pipes and housing is costing the United States billions in additional public spending. The authors determined that for every dollar spent now on fixing pipes, the country would reap $1.33 in future benefits, and that every dollar spent now to ensure contractors comply with federal rules for lead-safe painting would yield $3.10 in future benefits. The takeaway: Lead exposure is still a significant public health problem in the United States, one that could be prevented with cost-effective public policies.